Britton-Hecla freshman Abby Lee brought home fourth and fifth place finishes from the Class B state track meet in Sioux Falls last weekend to lead Marshall County tracksters.
Britton-Hecla qualified 10 athletes in eight events while Langford Area qualified four thinclads in four events at the three-day meet held at Howard Wood Field Thursday through Saturday.
“I’m very proud of Abby in placing in the long jump and triple jump,” said B-H coach Stephanie Symens. “She went into the long jump ranked 23rd.”
Lee came through with career-best performances in both of the jumping events. The BH freshman leaped 16-1 in the long jump, bettering her regional effort by nearly two feet for fourth, and her 33-7 triple jump was over a foot better than her regional leap and moved her up from the eighth qualifying spot to fifth.
Britton-Hecla’s Sterling Mertens also competed in the long jump, placing 14th with a jump of 14-11.
The Braves ran into some adversity with one of their three boys’ state relay qualifiers. Dashel Davidson pulled his hamstring coming around the first curve of his 200-meter leg of the medley relay and managed to finish his run basically on one leg, but the quartet that included Ben Suther, BoDell Davdison, and Daniel Person finished 24th with a 4:23.94 clocking.
The 3200-meter relay team of Wyatt Tosse, Gage Storley, Jaxon Zuehlke, and Person was 14th in 8:58.45 and the 1600-meter unit of BoDell Davdison, Bryce Hawkinson, Suther, and Person was 16th in 3:43.03.
Person was a three-time qualifier for B-H and also earned a spot in the 800-meter run, placing 16th in 2:07.11. Dashel Davidson also earned a spot in the 100-meter dash and was 21st in the preliminary round at 11.86.
Kalen Godel led Langford Area, qualifying in the medley relay with Isaac Tolaza, Jesse Keough, and Conner Gines, and also ran the 800 and 1600-meter runs. The relay quartet was 18th in 3:55.87, and Godel placed 10th in the 1600 in 4:45.22 and 15th in the 800 in 2:06.43. Keough was also a 300-meter hurdle state qualifier and finished 18th in the qualifying race in 45.66.
Symens was pleased with the progress shown by her squad this season despite a tough hand dealt out by Mother Nature.
“When we finally were able to compete in track meets this season the athletes’ times kept getting better,” noted Symens. “Everyone worked hard all season to drop their times and further their jumps and throws.”
Langford Area was low in numbers this spring, but Coach Taylor Reints credited his charges with giving the season their best effort.
“I think we were hoping for more but realistically we probably did about what we should have at the state meet,” said Reints. “I am always hoping that we can make a big jump from where we come in at, and a lot of times we have, but sometimes we are what the numbers say we are which is the fault of no one. I think we did what we could do this season. We pushed hard and I think we had fun.
“We only had six kids that did any running for us. Isaac Jimenez, Conner Glines, Jesse Keough, and Kalen Godel were our runners in the relay and Jesse and Kalen were our individual event athletes who have been in the state meet for us before. All of those guys really carried us this year and they gave 110% every day, and so it was very satisfying to coach and work with those guys.”
Britton-Hecla freshman Abby Lee came up with a pair of career bests to take fourth in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump at the Class B state track meet in Sioux Falls last weekend. Ten athletes form B-H and four from Langford Area qualified for the state event. (SD Public Broadcasting Photo)
